tooth decay

In California, Kristie’s dad had a look at my teeth, and he found many cavities.  My wisdom teeth were afflicted enough for him to recommend that I have them pulled.  Then, last Friday morning, while eating my morning bowl of cereal, I chomped down on an anomolously hard, dense kernal, and a piece of one of said wisdom teeth chipped off!  This distressed me greatly, so I immediately called for an oral surgery appointment (even though the Yale dental plan is crap).  Before I could actually get any teeth extracted, I had to have a "consultation", which was today at 4pm.  I got my mouth X-rayed, and the dentist explained that the tooth had cracked so easily because it was heavily decayed.  Whereas the top tooth (the chipped one) was massively corroded, the bottom one was okay for now, but would likely need to be pulled in the future.  I decided to just bang them out both at once.  Although Yale’s dental plan covered the cost of the X-ray, it doesn’t include cavity fills or extractions, so I was completely on my own for the finances.  But I feel that this is enough of an emergency to take care of ASAP rather than wait for my postdoc benefits to kick in.  I mean, my jaw was already in slight pain from the cavities (presumably) and I can feel the jagged edge where the tooth shard broke off!  So now I have that to look forward to as soon as we get back from our second weekend at Cape Cod.